LinkedIn is undoubtedly the largest professional social network in the world, and a lot of people have been harnessing its power to generate new leads for their organizations. The question is: are you making the most out of your LinkedIn profile online?
Today we take a look at how you can amplify the power of your LinkedIn profile to generate leads for your business.
From optimizing your profile photograph to your write-up, we’ve got all bases covered. It’s time to take your LinkedIn lead generation campaign to the next level!
Profile Picture
One of the most essential parts of your LinkedIn profile is your profile photograph because it’s the first thing that a potential prospect will look at when browsing your profile page.
There is a lot that a photograph can do; it can convey emotion, personality, and at times, even trust. Faces have a psychological effect on people looking at them. In fact, there are also applications available that analyze your picture and show you what your emotions your face conveys.
You should take a headshot wearing clothes that you usually wear to work – to give them an impression of how you do business, and that you also wear a smile.
Trust us. It works.
Cover Photo
Your cover photograph also has to stand out; you don’t necessarily have to put something that is branded by your company — placing pictures that you have with other influencers in the industry, events that you have been a part of, or a photo of you in a city that you are geographically targeting for sales can make a difference in the way you are perceived.
Your profile photo conveys you as a person with all your emotions, while your cover photo backs up your claims.
Headline
Your headline is the second thing that your prospects read after they see your name. Now due to the limited character space, you really need to work your way around the limitations to stand out.
The best practice is for you to try and encapsulate everything that you do in just one line. One can skip formal titles such as: “Chief Blank Officer” and experiment using terms and additions such as “Growth Specialist | Head of Sales.”
Remember, the headline has to grab the attention of your prospect at the moment that they read it, but it has to be formal enough for them to know that you mean business.
Summary
Remember this.
“Your summary is not your resume.”
Time and time again, we’ve observed a lot of marketers using their summary section as their online resume, but this will not help you in the long run. Your summary page should be as it states: your summary.
This is where you can get creative with the type of copy that you want to use. You can promote yourself, but in a way that is engaging with your prospects. Don’t make it too long as you do not want to sound boring.
Add links to make them find out more about you, preferably on your organization’s website so that you can use your profile as a landing page for your company.
You can multiple links depending on where you want to send them or how you want to brand yourself, but don’t make it seem like you’ve turned your summary page into an affiliate page.
Recommendations
People giving testimonials about you are one of the more exciting ways that you can provide your profile some social proof. A lot of LinkedIn marketers recommend that you have at least four or five on your profile.
If you do not have any yet, call your old employer or colleague, maybe it’s time for you to reconnect with them anyway.
Just as a testimonial helps sell a product, a recommendation on LinkedIn helps sell you.
Remember that the profile that you have on LinkedIn is an extension of the brand that you have.
Complete Your Profile
The more complete your profile is, the more professional you look. Whether it be logos or simple additions such as your educational background, you need to be able to make sure that your profile is complete.
There is a difference between it being loaded and being complete; you don’t have to put every single that you did on your profile.
As you can see by merely applying a couple of these tweaks, you can make sure that your profile is ready to generate leads for you. This may seem to be a passive way to generate leads, but it’s part of your brand’s representation.
However, one must remember that it’s not enough that your profile is lead generating. You should also engage in steps to make sure that your lead nurturing efforts are up to par or greater than of the competition.
